Rich: They have soared in the skies during the Pleistocene era,
which ended about ten thousand years ago. We can assume that they feasted
on carrion of saber toothed tigers and mastodons. Their original range
was a huge swath of land along the Pacific coastline, from British Colombia
to Baja California.

Estelle: There have been fossil finds of condors in what is now
New England and Florida too.

Rich: Lewis and Clark saw them and even shot one. But by the
1940s, the range was reduced to the coastal mountains of southern and central
California.

Rich: As eggs and as young, they sure do! Ravens haven been known
to go after eggs. The chicks are at risk of possible predation by golden
eagles, bobcats, and even black bears have attempted to get access to nests.
The adults do some pretty dazzling flying defending their nests.

Estelle: Adults try to stay where it is safe, up high on cliffs
or in trees. They do have to be careful when they feed, though, as they
are vulnerable to possible attack by golden eagles, mountain lions, and
bobcats.

Why did the number of condors decline
so drastically, leading up to the Recovery Program’s creation in
1975?

Estelle: It was a number of factors, most notably from human
activities. They have been poisoned and shot, sometimes mistakenly. There
were squirrel and coyote abatement programs that used baited (poisoned)
carcasses that the condors got into. They were shot, in part for their
feathers for use as quills, by early settlers. The hobby of egg collecting
was very popular and may have impacted the birds; the practice wasn’t
banned until 1918. Collisions with overhead utility wires was another problem.
But poisoning by lead appears to be a major factor, by consuming carrion
that had been contaminated with lead shot.

Weren’t eggs and chicks being captured
in the wild in the 1980s? What happened to those birds?

Estelle: Those birds really helped the captive breeding program
by adding their genes to the collective breeding pool. They created a lot
of eggs and a lot of condors. If a bird is suitable genetically and behaviorally,
they may be released. AC9, the last wild-born condor captured for the captive
breeding program, was rereleased after 15 years in captivity. He’s
breeding in the wild now and has produced three chicks with his captive-born
mate.

What was the lowest number the condor
population dropped to and when was that?

Rich: We were down to 24 birds, total, in 1984. Before all the
birds were captured for the Recovery Program in 1986, there were only five
birds left in the wild, one breeding pair and three males. The rest were
in captive breeding facilities at the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego
Wild Animal Park.

Rich: It was incredibly controversial, that decision. There were
two schools of thought. One was: if it is their time to go, let them go
with dignity. The other was: human beings were the reasons for the decline,
we owe it to them to try to save them.

Estelle: If we hadn’t, they certainly would have died out.
I think it was AC3’s death that finally catalyzed the decision. She
died a prolonged death from lead poisoning. By the time researchers were
able to actually capture her and treat her, it was too late.

Rich: Increasing egg production, for one. That’s why so
many of the early chicks were hand-raised using those condor puppets. If
a condor pair lose an egg, often the female will lay another. That’s
called “double-clutching.”

Estelle: Some can produce three eggs in a season. Multiple clutching
really got the captive breeding program going strong in those early days.

There are pictures of condor chicks being
fed by hand-puppets that look like adult condors. Why was this done?
Is it still being done?

Estelle: It is still done because of the issue of “imprinting” – we
don’t want the birds to become too used to humans. We want them to
think they are being raised by condors. As they get older, they are housed
with other condors and human contact is really limited. That way, they
can be released into the wild thinking they are birds and not people (she
laughs).

Weren’t Andean condors being used
as foster parents during those early years? Are there condor foster parents?

Estelle: In the early years, the adult condors were too valuable
to the breeding program to be rereleased into the wild, so researchers
used their closest living relatives, Andean condors, as foster parents.
The thinking was that the Andean condors could teach the California condor
chicks how to live in the wild. The Andeans were released with the chicks
and later recaptured. Now that the California condor numbers are up, they
sometimes use adult condors who have lost an egg to raise chicks that aren’t
their offspring.

Rich: There are “mentor birds” that go in with young
condors too, who teach them appropriate social behavior.

Estelle: Sure. As the numbers go up, some parents do raise their
own chicks. There are all kinds of strategies for dealing with raising
the chicks, such as foster parents or hand-rearing, and they depend on
what is best for the program.

Are any of the original wild condors
still alive? Are any of them in the wild?

Estelle: You bet. The last condor captured in the wild, AC9,
was released after 15 years in captivity in which he fathered 16 chicks.
He’s breeding in the wild now and has produced two chicks with his
mate.

What were the initial challenges in
rereleasing condors into the wild?

Rich: Early on, researchers didn’t have enough information
to understand all of the elements that are important for young condors’ learning
curves. We didn’t know how much they learned about survival and condor
etiquette from older birds. Peer groupings works well with mammals and
some other birds, but not condors. Some of the first juvenile birds released
acted a bit like rowdy teenagers in the wild. That’s why there are
now “mentor birds” with young condors before they are released.

Is there a projected date that the recovery
effort will reach the “magic” number of condors in the wild?
What happens then? Will the captive breeding facilities close down?

Estelle: The program goals are to have three separate sustainable
populations in California and Arizona, each with 150 birds and at least
15 breeding pairs. That could happen by 2020. But those numbers really
can change.

Rich : The main thing is that we need to have a safe environment
for the birds to live in and that takes time. The ban on lead bullets just
went into effect so the results may not be seen for a few years yet. In
the meantime, we are building up the populations in several different areas.

Estelle : Separate populations are in case of disease or another
calamity, so that the entire population wouldn’t be at risk. Additionally
it enables us to restore the condor to as much of its former range as possible.

Where are the captive breeding facilities
and where are the release sites?

Rich: Condor breeding facilities are at the Los Angeles Zoo,
San Diego Wild Animal Park, Oregon Zoo and the Peregrine Fund’s World
Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, which is where our four birds were hatched.

Estelle : The number of release sites has grown. There are three
active release sites in California, including Big Sur, Pinnacles National
Monument and Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge; one in Arizona at Vermillion
Cliffs, and one in Baja, Mexico.

Where are condors currently living in
the wild and how well are those populations doing?

Estelle: There are populations near us in the Sespe Wilderness,
in Big Sur, and a few birds at the Pinnacles National Monument, totaling
more than 80 birds in California. There is a release site and 70 birds
in Arizona at the Grand Canyon and this population now ranges into southern
Utah. Then there are the 15 birds in Baja. We’ve been celebrating
because the number of birds in the wild now totals more than the number
in captivity. The total is over 320 birds. From 22 to 320 in 27 years.
Wow.

Rich: Somehow they find each other. We’ve had birds released
in Big Sur come visit the Sespe birds. I think we might get a wild bird
over here to check out our condors. The wild birds go check out the release
pens before releases. I’ve seen them sitting on top of the pens where
the captive birds are waiting to be released.

Estelle: The number of wild nests has been going up in recent
years. Last year, in our study area, we had five active nests. Four of
those chicks fledged (took first flight) successfully and one had to be
airlifted to the Los Angeles Zoo for emergency treatment. It had microtrash
and lead in its system. But it has recovered and will be released soon.
This season, as of April, we have four active nests. There are more in
Big Sur and Arizona too.

Estelle: Here, biologists or veterinary staff check the egg,
and then the chick, every 30 days. It’s a good thing too, and has
increased the number of successful fledglings. A few years back, we had
to airlift out a chick and one of our interns stayed in a biovac outside
the nest to keep the adults from coming into the cave where the nest was.
If they had discovered the chick was missing, they might have abandoned
the nest. Within 24 hours, the chick was back and reunited with the parents.
It eventually fledged (flew out of the nest) successfully.

Rich: About ten years ago we approached the Recovery Program
and asked if we could help. They agreed, so we backed up our interest by
having staff help with condor programs.

Estelle: Didn’t we send our maintenance guys down to Baja
to help build the release pens there?

Rich: We did that, we hosted Recovery Team meetings and did projects
at Hopper Mountain. In 1999, our Board voted in favor of the concept of
having a condor exhibit here. We were asked to become a partner in 2002.
It made sense for us to display the birds because we are in the heart of
condor country, had the space and the commitment to build a great exhibit – a
showcase.

Rich: We are not set up for breeding here – we don’t
have the facilities or room for that. The plan is that we will have these
four juvenile birds until they become mature, around ages six to eight,
and then they will go to a breeding facility and we’ll get new birds.
Our birds are too closely related to breed with each other. If they did
produce an egg, we’d send it to one of the breeding facilities.

Rich: In the early years, researchers gave the wild birds number
designations, like AC3 and AC9. When birds started being hatched in captivity,
they were given numbers in the “Condor Studbook,” which tracks
all the birds. The AC-numbered birds got new numbers at that time. The
captive-born condors also got names from the Chumash language, which is
the Native American tribe in this area. It can be confusing.

Estelle: It gets even more confusing as every facility had their
own numbering program, as did the release sites. It’s been standardized
now with the Studbook. It is also much easier to identify a bird by a number
than from a name. Try fitting “Preghawish” on a wing tag! The
numbers contain information, for example they tell us the relative age
of the bird.

Rich: You know, these aren’t “our” birds, they
are the Condor Recovery Program birds and ultimately belong to all Americans.

Why is it important to “save” condors?
Especially when their wild habitat is being encroached upon?

Rich: You know, it is as much symbolic as it is literally important.
If we, as humans, can show that we can save a species on the brink of extinction,
then we have made a difference. It shows that we can be successful. Condors
are sort of an umbrella species, in order to save them, we have to save
their habitat. If we save the habitat it saves every other plant and animal
in that habitat. It’s not just about helping condors either, it also
helps people. We are learning that having lead in our environment isn’t
good for anybody. Most of the money comes from private sources – especially
for the programs at the zoos and the Peregrine Fund. We haven’t received
any government money to create this exhibit. It is a passionate response
from individuals and businesses to leave behind a legacy. The condor is
on the California state quarter, along with John Muir and Half Dome. We
don’t want to have to explain to future generations what that bird
is on the quarter.

Estelle: We’ve learned a lot from early releases and now
know that some birds may not be suitable to be released into the wild.
Experiences in the Grand Canyon and parts of California have shown us that
condors interacting too closely with humans negatively affects the condors’ abilities
to survive independently in the wild.

Rich: That extends to all wildlife. In general it is a bad idea
to approach wildlife too closely.

Rich: Right now, there is no guarantee that they are eating food
that isn’t contaminated by lead shot. Over time, this program will
be reduced. But we have a huge investment in these birds. We have to preserve
them.

Don’t condors need hundreds of
miles to soar? How can they be happy in captivity?

Rich: They are flying those miles because they are foraging – looking
for food. But they are very efficient fliers, actually they are gliders
who can go miles on just one wing beat. We’ve designed our exhibit
to give them a lot of stimulation. It is dynamic and things change and
can move. There is a good glide path.

Estelle: The birds have been using parts of the exhibit, like
the pools, the snags and the cave, just as we had hoped. They’ve
been relaxed from day one – we haven’t seen any signs of distress
at all.

Rich: We still had some construction going on and someone was
using a grinder. The birds didn’t even seen to notice. We’ve
allowed people to walk on the boardwalk and the birds have just taken it
in stride.